


Special

by BNZG



Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Escape, F/M, Horror, Human Resources is a joke, Hunters, Longer than expected, Macro/Micro, Many inspirations, Multi, Not Quite Dystopia, Panic, People as Pets, Reunion, Romance?, Shrinking, Survival, Thriller, World Gone Mad, Worldwide Supernatural Event, mentions of human experimentation, scavenging, what if
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:54:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29477292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BNZG/pseuds/BNZG
Summary: A young woman reunites with the love of her life after a worldwide phenomenon has them apart.But reuniting may not always be a good thing.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10
Collections: The Reduced





	1. Chapter 1

Iris had to mention she was proud of herself for gathering up such a nice bundle.

A freshly ripe blueberry, a partially crushed blackberry, and a torn arugula leaf filled her grass-threaded basket in its entirety; a full course meal for some of the others within the hidden sanctuary within the grove of trees. She was still relatively new to group of gatherers that left the safety of the nameless village, having been forced to replaced Alberto after he had been injured after a rather brutal fight with a spider; An Orb-Weaver, as was pointlessly clarified by the former entomology nerd turned survival expert Eric Gruham. 

It didn’t matter what kind of spider it was to Iris. Venomous or not, all of them were dangerous monsters to her and “her people” all the same. Moreso now than ever before. 

Not to say she didn’t hate spiders before. Back before she underwent “The Change,” she still screamed at the sight of one scurrying across her floor, either running to her older brother, father or mother, Isaac, or whomever was around to take care of it. If not, she’d hurl whatever solid object within arm’s reach to try to squish it flat. 

Her brother Reese used to laugh and tease her about her arachnophobia, constantly pointing out in that irritating know-it-all voice of his that “they’re more scared of you than you are of them.” 

That  _ may  _ have been the case  _ before. _

But it certainly wasn’t the case  _ now.  _

She quickly tied the bundle of food up with a piece of twine and went to reunite with the other members of their little scavenger expedition who were in the thicket under the maple tree. When she got there, she hefted up the basket over her shoulder and called for their attention, “Mine is full. Even got a hold of a blackberry.” 

There were a few sounds of muted praise and excitement accompanied by several members looking at the basket she was presenting. Carter, a red-headed, pale-skinned man with a full beard and a small scattering of freckles across his nose, looked up from his own search to look at hers.  _ “Nice. _ I found one too! But yours looks a lot bigger.” 

Hannah, a blonde woman with deep blue eyes and an athletic build looked at Carter and squinted. “I don’t know about that. Yours had looked a bit fuller than hers.” 

“I mean, it works out either way; we got more to eat no matter what,” said the balding, stocky man with a shrug, indifferent. Iris couldn’t quite recall his name Anshem or Alnshem, she couldn’t quite get it right, which made her feel bad given that she had known him for a few years now, although they rarely interacted. He had such a serious and callous aura around him that made her feel as though he was hard to talk to, and apparently, he was known as one of the loners of the village, keeping little company and not giving out too much about himself. 

It didn’t make him any less valuable, nonetheless, as he was a remarkably good huntsman, one of the few who had mastered the bow and arrow in record speed when the community had still been in the process of being built. And his keen sense of direction had saved them on more occasions than one. Particularly one dreary day where the leftover rain had wrecked some of the route markers after the foragers had been stranded under the alcove of slightly uprooted tree roots. Iris had been one of the seamstresses of the village at the time, and had heard that it may take them days, if not weeks for them to return back, given that the mud and displaced shrubbery could’ve made any way back inaccessible. And that was if they survived the journey back in the first place. 

To the surprise of everyone, they showed up two days later. The scouting group at the time had been worn, fatigued, and dirty, but everyone had been miraculously in one piece. Carter had explained that Anshalm (Anshem?) had taken charge when the former group leader, Terrence Williamson, had panicked, unable to find the way back after journeying several hours out. She’d been impressed by the details of him climbing up a fallen log to get a higher perspective and finding familiar paths by the shape of the gaps in the trees. Stoic or not, the man had ingenuity that was worth respecting. 

Francis, an affable man who Iris found too difficult to believe to have once been a corporate lawyer, turned to her and nodded at her basket in approval. “To be honest, I’m more interested in trying that blueberry. I’m not used to how much stronger blackberries taste at this size. Makes me thirsty just imagining taking a bite into it.” 

“Have y’all tried kiwi before?” Peter, a young man with scruffy brown hair and a deep southern twang asked, “Ah did back e’when Ah hid in mah neighba’s house back on the farm. Took uh bite and mah tongue felt like it got scratched by uh cat an’ lemon juice.” 

Phoebe, a thin woman with a boyishly short hair and a dragon tattoo slightly visible above her collar bone, seemed to grimace at the thought. “Seriously, too many things taste far too sour now at our size than it did before.” 

Before the group could get distracted by chatter, the scavenging leader, a middle-aged Vietnamese man named Minh, called out in that accented yet authoritative voice of his, 

“Remember everyone, it is almost the Autumn Equinox.” His statement shut all idle chatter like a slammed door. “Not only does that mean food will start becoming more scarcer, but the nights will come earlier.” 

A sense of uneasiness made it way amongst the group of foragers. The coming of fall had a new meaning for the group who had to learn the hard way to fend for themselves in a world that had become all the more unforgiving. For nearly all of them, the changing of seasons only held significance in the coming of certain holidays or the upcoming change in outerwear wardrobes. Now, it could mean life and death for the ill-prepared or the unfortunate. 

Everyone had learned from the first year how brutal it could be. 

Minh went on, his voice a bit softer, “I don’t mean to be a buzzkill but remember that we don’t have as much daytime as we did before. I don’t want us to get too carried away in discussion until we’ve got what we need. Especially when any predators could be lurking nearby. Continue to gather as much as you can for now and we can compare our finds when we get back.” He turned back to the branches that were more than likely twigs and pushed through the green veil, his makeshift toothpick turned spear to puncture his way through the veritable thicket of leaves.. 

The group remained silent as they refocused their search for whatever food or worthwhile material they could come across, only the rustling and light steps breaking through the quiet atmosphere besides the occasional ominous bird call or chirping of insects. 

Iris’s smile of pride vanished from her face. Dispirited and a bit ashamed for starting up the conversation, she looked back at the basket and fastened the twine a bit more tightly. She hadn’t meant to cause a distraction. She had only wanted to show how much she progressed from when she had just started off a little over a month ago. 

She sighed and decided to look for anything useful such as sturdy twigs in the foliage or maybe even a discarded piece of cloth or cardboard to put in her makeshift backpack. 

Even so, under the forest canopy that dominated her world, she couldn’t help but let her mind wander to simpler times before the world she knew imploded around her. 

Back in the days when the biggest stressors were exams and trying to find a job in her field. 

Back when she could call her family and friends and talk about the going-ons in their lives. 

Back when she hadn’t understood the better luxuries of life she had taken for granted until it was too late. 

It was strange that those times had felt so long ago, and yet it felt so recent at the same time. Back then, she had dreams of a feasible future with a wonderful career, a life with her boyfriend whom she had loved dearly, and a home where she could live with her family in comfort. 

Now, she just had to focus on just surviving through the days as they came, one at a time. 

She shook her head. Now was not the time to get lost in nostalgia. At least for it to disrupt her tasks. 

She opened her backpack and brought out a crude wooden splinter that was the length of her hand and cut into the more coarser leaves near the base of one of the skyscraper-sized trees that loomed far above. Some of these leaves could be used to reinforce the huts and cabins in the village. Extremely useful during the rainy periods. And some of the chipped pieces of bark or fallen twigs could serve as some shielding too for the palisade around the village. 

Once she had managed to tear the leaf into a decent enough size to bend into her bag, she began to make room for the bark and twigs. 

This was her life now. 

In a world that was now bigger than ever before. 


	2. Chapter 2

Apparently it was a worldwide phenomenon. A pandemic really. 

The news wasn’t quite clear on what happened at the time. Some said it was an extremely experimental disease manufactured in some underground lab that leaked out. Others said it was the work of some kind of chemical that leaked into the water supply and managed to stretch around the world. And then there were those that said it was an act of God to punish humanity’s growing hubris. 

Unfortunately Iris really never had the chance to know. 

All she knew was that numerous people all over the world had suddenly found themselves shrunken to the size of mice within a day’s time. It had happened without warning and without mercy, people finding themselves suddenly at the mercy of their own surroundings, pets, or even fellow humans. 

And she had been one of them. 

She had been about five foot six once upon a time, a normal human height before she had become one of “The Reduced,” as those who fell victim to the drastic drop in their stature to only about one-twenty-fourth their original height had now been designated. 

Before, she could walk to the store, buy her own clothes, drive her own car, and all kinds of things in the average first world country. 

Now, at a mere two and three quarter inches tall, she’d be lucky to even travel half of a mile without being eaten by a _ bug. _

It had happened five or six years ago when she had been going out for a leisurely stroll around the campus area of her university when she felt her body tingling before the world she knew ballooned upwards in front of her very own eyes. 

Grass stems had loomed overhead like weed-thin trees. Insects were now the terrifying creatures that had mandibles that could crush her hand like a vice. Rats, foxes and cats were now huge monsters that haunted her dreams. 

And the unaffected humans were now the towering giants that dominated the earth, moving about uncaringly to the world below beneath their feet. 

Iris remembered being absolutely paralyzed with fear as her world rumbled with the thunderous footsteps and booming voices of the enormous passerby, colossi completely unaware of the tiny, stranded woman in the center of a sidewalk square. She had thought she had been dreaming, stuck in an extremely vivid nightmare that she couldn’t get herself to wake up from. 

It was when a gigantic tennis shoe the size of a house had crashed in front of her, the shockwave sending her falling on her back when she realized it wasn’t a dream at all, but a much larger, much more dangerous reality that she was now trapped in, with no way out. 

She didn’t remember much after she took off running for her life, panicked beyond belief. 

Everything had been huge and dangerous and scary… And she truly feared for her life. 

She would imagine a dog’s maw coming down to chomp her up. A bee’s stinger coming to impale her. A shoe coming down to flatten her. Her first few days were wrought with unrelenting terror and confusion. She didn’t know what to do, what happened to her or why. She had practically spent two entire days hiding underneath one of the park trash cans nearby, cringing in fear as people the size of buildings walked by without suspecting the shrunken presence right underneath their noses. 

Somehow, despite being a terrified mess with no experience of surviving the outdoors longer than a weekend getaway, she had managed to survive on the discarded leftovers that were left by litterers or trash dropped by crows and ravens. It had been a deeply humbling experience and one that taught her that stale, week old bread still was worth eating once she pushed her reservations aside. 

She didn’t know how long it had been, maybe a month, maybe two, when she woke up to a nudge to her shoulder rather than the sound of normal sized humans stomping about. She nearly had a heart attack when she saw a person right next to her, and was dumbstruck when she realized it was a woman her size accompanied with two other people. 

That had been six years ago. 

After a series of numerous events within that timespan, she had found herself in a makeshift village composed of people her size, all of them having found themselves around two or three inches just like she did. After living a rather lonely and miserable existence underneath a trashcan where she would be forced to leave outside her own peril to obtain food and water, she was ecstatic to find company whom she could relate to. Some of their stories were incredibly tragic and terrifying, riddled with the loss of companions or loved ones, if not nightmarish ordeals that even thinking about would make her shiver just from thinking about. Some died from illness or disease, some from the dangerous wildlife that they had become prey for.. 

Or for the really unfortunate, to be found by the normal-sized humans. 

At the time, Iris had been estranged from civilization in the way she knew it, the thirty-eight people in the village being the ones she only had contact with now, so she hadn’t heard much about what was going on in the world beyond. After all, she no longer had easy access to any phones or computers or whatever could be used to communicate to the world literally at large. It had been one of her biggest grievances that she could not contact her family or boyfriend or any of her friends. 

But apparently, to her absolute surprise, it had seemed that the world wasn’t as sympathetic to the shrunken victims as she had imagined they would be. 

A few survivors had told them that the general society had no longer viewed them as human, and even the government had essentially revoked the Reduced of their human rights, as they could no longer be classified as humans anymore. 

Iris thought they had been joking. Certainly the public had known they were people, only shrunken in size wouldn’t they? That they once walked among them as normal citizens with hopes and dreams, aspirations to be realized? That they had families and loved ones who would see them as just as they were, right? 

_ “I mean… how could they not?” she had asked, truly bewildered.  _

_ James Tillman, a scraggly man covered in scars and blotted skin, shook his head, his icy-blue eyes snuffed of their optimism and wander. The curious group of Reduced men and women had gathered around the entrance to hear about his cautionary tale of the people who had been unaffected, and she had caught the middle of the conversation as he talked about the evils of mankind. “Sure, maybe your family and friends might see you as a person. Hell, I heard there are people still protesting against the change who might be on our side. But to the random Average Joe off the street? Not anymore.”  _

_ James had been one of only three survivors who had escaped a place that was only known to them as the Institute, a simple yet ominous title. Apparently, many of the Reduced had been gathered up by the government for research and experimentation. James had never specified what kind of experiments that were done to him and his kin, which Iris more than understood why, but judging from his bruised and atrophied appearance, Iris could tell they hadn’t been particularly ethical or humane ones.  _

_ “I thought that too in the beginning,” he went on, his voice devoid of emotion. “Me and my older brother… we had just been leaving one of the bars on North street when it all happened. Didn’t want to get stepped on in the parking lot so we looked for help.”  _

_ He looked down, no doubt in recollection of what transpired. His voice was quiet and barely above a whisper. “Eric managed to catch the attention of a woman walking by. We thought that she looked nice enough. You know… like one of them nurses or kindergarten teacher types. Turns out she was just some freelance journalist who wrote listicals and shit.  _

_ “In any case, turns out we were dead wrong. Because the moment we think she’s here to save our sorry asses, she snatches us up and stuffs us in a cage the moment we get home.”  _

_ He snarled, the most emotion she had seen in him since she had met him. “Bitch treated us like we were fucking dolls. Broke my arm at one point when forcing me to wear some wind-up nutcracker outfit for Christmas. Said it was my fault for moving too much. Tramp.”  _

_ He paused for a moment, staring at the ground unblinkingly as he gathered himself up to continue. Iris could tell this was becoming more painful for him, and to be honest, she felt it would be rude to urge him to continue. But before she could say anything, he went on.  _

_ “I think it was maybe... five months? Six months? I don’t fucking know, but one day… someone knocked on her door, and some guy in a suit came in” His eyes narrowed, painful memories beginning to stir, “The moment we saw him, we knew we were in helluva lot of trouble.  _

_ “Guy says he works for the government and some shit. Tell her that he’s buying us off her hands for a shit ton of money. For all that coddling and affectionate crap she spouted every single damn day, she was awfully eager to hand us over to them like nothing. I don’t think she even said ‘bye’ or anything. Just jumped up and handed over the cage we were in straight to him.”  _

_ He brought a hand to his face and cupped his mouth before continuing, and Iris immediately knew what direction his story was going to go. “Then… he takes us to this… place. The, um… the Institute is what the others called it. Think it had an actual name, but it didn’t mean too much to us who were brought there.”  _

_ He was silent for several long seconds; Iris could feel her skin crawl at just the thought of what may have occurred there. He clutched his arm, his mouth forming a tight frown that hid a faint tremble.  _

_ “Iris… if you knew even half the shit they did to us… we weren’t humans to them anymore. The… things… the things they did… is was like we were fucking lab rats instead of people. Like we didn’t matter. I don’t think they even asked our damn names.”  _

_ “You don’t have to go on, James,” Iris had finally said, “I... I understand.”  _

_ “No, you  _ don’t, _ Iris.” The statement was said with such conviction, it nearly made her flinch. “I mean, I know you’re trying to, but you don’t.” He stood up from his perch near the grassy gate entrance. “It wasn’t just those bastard scientists at the Institute. It wasn’t just the lady who treated us like mice and sold us at the drop of a dime. It’s  _ everyone _ out there, Iris! All those who are still big!”  _

_ His eyes went wide before he instantly regained his cool, his voice returning back to normal volume. “To the general public, we’re nothing more than pests. Pets. Playthings. Toys. Whatever they’ll us into. But we certainly aren't human to them. Not anymore.”  _

_ “They can’t do that to us!” Phoebe had declared, indignant. “There  _ are _ laws against this! There are people who have to be on our side! Or at least family looking for us! They can’t get away with something like this!”  _

_ “I think you missed the part where he said the guy worked for the  _ government,  _ idiot.” _ _ a tall man, Houston, had said sourly.  _

_ “Hey, there’s no need to resort to name-calling! “ Francis said in Phoebe’s defense. “I mean- she has to be right about the laws and-”  _

_ “They don’t apply to us.” James pointedly interrupted. “Like I said, they took it all away. Our rights. Our freedoms. Hell, I remember seeing on that whore’s TV that the Reduced are now allowed to be bought and sold as property. There were even talks about putting us in pet shops and auctions and shit.”  _

_ “You’re fucking kidding me….” Francis gasped, shocked.  _

_ “But… how could they? That makes no damn sense! We literally were just normal sized like them not too long ago! How come… why would they do such a thing?” asked Iris, absolutely floored. She was grasping at straws; there was no way the world had gone mad so quickly! “Why wouldn’t they help us? Why wouldn’t they even try?”  _

_ James shrugged, “I dunno. Maybe we just didn’t matter as much. Maybe we were too small to be of much use to society or something. Maybe nobody cared as much as we thought. Or maybe I’m just hallucinating all of this and stuck in a fucking fever dream that won’t fucking end. Hell if I know anything anymore.”  _

_ He looked at them all with a stern gaze, his voice deathly serious when he said, “All I know is that we’re on our own from now on. The big ones can’t be trusted. Don’t count on them coming for your rescue. It doesn’t matter what they are to others. Because to them, we aren’t the same people. And probably never will be.”  _

Just remembering James’ words back then made her heart churn. Even though it had been a couple years now since she had seen regular sized people, the sheer thought that she might not be a person in their eyes anymore was a bit nerve-wracking. Half a decade was far too short for the rest of the outside world to have forgotten they were human just like them and relegate them to less than second-class citizens. 

More often than not, she would occasionally pose this question to herself if it was truly hopeless of her to try to reach out to their normal-sized counterparts or seek her family, if there was a chance that they were still normal sized. In her heart, she truly believed her parents and brother wouldn’t forsake her despite now being toy-sized to them, that they would take her in. That their love would truly be unconditional. 

But what about everyone else? 

Would her former best friend Shelby, the kind girl who had come to her for drinks and parties, still be willing to talk to her? 

Would her supervisor back at the accounting firm who had shown her the ropes and took her under his wing still see her as someone worth respecting? 

Would Isaac, her boyfriend… 

Would he-

There was a loud buzzing in the air and everyone froze in their tracks. 

Several enormous insects, wasps the size of large dogs, whizzed past them in a blink of an eye. Iris caught a glimpse of their yellow and black carapaces as they soared above them like a jet, their wings beating at sonic speeds that carried them in and out of sight as quickly as they came. 

Everyone remained stock still until the buzzing sound seemed to drop to an almost imperceptible pitch. 

There was an almost tangible release of tension as the wasps disappeared out of sight. Wasps were an incredibly dangerous threat to people her size, their stingers perfectly capable of puncturing right through their fragiles torsos like paper. It sent chills up her spine thinking just how close they came to the group. 

After everyone had gathered their wits about them once more, they continued on through the floral, vine-choked forest floor with renewed vigilance; their eyes and ears more attuned to the world around them as they made their way to return back to the colony. 

She didn’t know if the forest she now lived in had a name. All she knew was that it wasn’t too far from the university she had attended; after all, when the community had suffered a bit of a food crisis, several groups had traveled to the school and managed to obtain some stale bread and pieces of tortilla chips. They’d also recycled many objects such as plastic or discarded cardboard pieces and fabric… anything helped when the whole world was against you. 

The group of eleven forged silently through the underbrush as the sun bore down through the gaps in the forest canopy. The trees soared to skyscraper heights far above their heads as the ground beneath them, littered with countless leaves and soil allowed them to carry their steps quietly. The ubiquitous hums of insects and bird calls in the distance served as a reminder of the life around them as they cautiously moved, alert to the possibility of any danger lurking nearby. Occasionally, a few words would be exchanged between the group, but the conversations were short lived and replaced with the sounds of the forest.

She thought to herself just how quickly she had acclimated to seeing her surroundings like this. As though she hadn’t been an accountant who had only been on a single camping trip she had back when she was in elementary school. And even that paled in comparison to the new reality that was deprived of such convenient comforts she had originally had taken for granted. 

“Hey Iris, did you know trees talk to one another?” 

Iris snapped out of her thoughts when Carter’s voice caught her attention. She turned to see the man coming up from behind, keeping pace enough to stay beside her. “I mean, they don’t  _ really  _ talk like with words or stuff, but they communicate through the fungi in the soil?” 

  
  


“No, I didn’t know that,” She hefted the bundle of food up in her arms again as the weight began to tire her hands. “Where did you learn that? I thought you were a math teacher?” 

“Eleanore’s a botanist,” he answered with a smile, “I mean, she used to be anyway. She told me one night when we were getting firewood near the colony and she just told me out the blue.” 

“It’s a nice fun fact, Got anymore?” Genuinely intrigued. Her voice remained low, as did Carter’s, as to not make themselves too conspicuous to any animals with sensitive hearing. 

“Sure do. Did you know the guy who played Chewbacca had to be with a bunch of crewmembers in bright vests when they were shooting Star Wars in the forest scenes because they were afraid that he’d be mistaken for Bigfoot and get shot?” 

“I thought you were going to give me another tree fact.”

“I mean, I could. But Eleanore talks my ear off about trees and plants too much. After the twelfth or thirteenth time of hearing about different plant species and Amazon forest deforestation, you get kind of sick of hearing too much about them. Don’t tell her I said that.though.” 

“Hey, you were the one that started talking to me about it,” Iris said with a light chuckle. “And to think I thought you were a hipster tree-hugger in the beginning. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I knew a few people” 

“Do I look like one?” 

“Yes.” 

Carter held a hand to his mouth to stifle a fit of incoming giggles. “Okay, I’ll give you that.” 

“It’s the red hair and the tattoo of the tree on your forearm,” Iris clarified, pointing to his right arm which was covered by the sleeves of his green handknit sweater. “I saw it when you were reinforcing the fence.” 

Understanding came to Carter immediately. “Ah, gotcha.” He rolled up his sleeve to display the tattoo back to her, pointing at the different details of spheres and realms within it. “It’s supposed to be Yggdrasil. World Tree and stuff. I’m big into Norse Mythology.” 

“Ah, sorry… Now I feel like an ass.” Iris said only half serious. She knew Carter didn’t really take offense, as it was all in jest. 

“Don’t be, I thought you were a goth,” Carter said with a shrug of his shoulders. “Or a punk rocker or something.” 

“...It’s the white hair isn’t it?” She pointed to her shoulder-length hair, a combination of mostly black hair with several white tufts that came out in several directions. It wouldn’t be the first time someone thought her hair was bleached. 

“Uh… yeah. Sorry.” Carter replied with a nervous chuckle as he replaced his sleeve. “I mean, um… I thought it was artificial at first, but then I noticed it didn’t go away. Sorry if it's a sore topic.” 

Iris nearly snorted, shifting the basket to one hand to flap the other hand down to show that it really wasn’t a big deal. “ _ Please.  _ It’s nothing really. I’m not sick or anything. It’s Poliosis. My mom has it. I was born with it. Hell, I thought it was the coolest thing ever when I was growing up.” 

“Awesome,” Carter said with a renewed smile. “Trust me, as the only redhead in the family, I used to get some looks too.” 

“And yet, you can’t drink alcohol.” 

“Just because I’m the most Irish looking bastard to be doesn’t mean I can hold my drink.” 

“What I’d kill for a freakin’ drink right now.” came another voice from behind, and the two turned their heads to see Phoebe coming up from the rear. “I’d even kill for that piss-water you call a beer.” 

“Black Isle ain’t piss!” 

Phoebe scoffed. “Says the lightweight. Might as well just drink out of the toilet for the same effect. Trust me, if you had what I could whip up, you’d be knocked out flat in minutes, Carter.” 

Iris laughed a bit, she had forgotten that Phoebe was a bartender at some lodge. Not that she had the chance to go to it, but Phoebe had the appearance of someone who knew what she was talking about when it came to drinks. 

“I just think it sucks that we can never get enough grapes and ingredients to make wine. You’d think that as small as we are, we’d have a swimming pool of it or something if we ever came across a wine bottle.” 

“I dunno about that. Think the alcohol content would kill us at this size.” 

“Maybe, but hey, best way to die, am I right?” 

Jason, a young man with dark skin, caramel eyes and hair done up in long dreads, groaned as he slid next to the group. “I think it’s bullshit that I finally became old enough to drink two days before all this happened. Didn’t even get to go to a bar.” 

Phoebe’s eyes widened. “Waitaminute… you’re telling me you actually waited until you were legal to drink? You poor baby…” 

Jason rolled his eyes. “Didn’t have a choice. My mom and dad were both pastors, so everyone I knew would definitely snitch to them if they saw me sneak a sip. Plus, my grandpa was a raging alcoholic when he was alive, so my dad made it a point for us to never to have any drinks like that in our house.” 

“Ah, gotcha.” Phoebe conceded, “Both my parents were bar owners, so I always got to try some when I could.” 

“Are you guys paying attention around you?” Anshem’s (Alnshem’s?) asked, his baritone voice cutting right through the conversation like a beam. “Because it looks like you aren’t to me.” 

All of them were taken aback by the condescension that came from his statement and quieted. At least, for a moment before an irritated Phoebe spoke up, a glare leveled at the tall man. 

“For your information, yes we are aware. S’not like having a little chat’s going to make us forget where we are. It’s called multitasking. Look it up.” 

“Phoebe!” Carter said, trying to reign in his friend and comrade, but she wasn’t having any of it. 

“No, Carter. This asshole acts like we’re a bunch of kids in school who can’t focus when someone so much as says, ‘Hi.’ And it’s not the first time he’s acted like we can’t just talk for a minute or two.” 

“Maybe because you guys can’t shut up once you start? And it could wake up every single animal in the area in time for dinner? Not that you’d notice.” 

“Hey, there’s no reason to be a prick, Alnshem.” Carter said. 

_ “Ah.” _ Iris thought. So it was Alnshem, not Anshem. 

“Hey, does anyone hear something?” Jason asked timidly, but his voice was drowned out by the argument that was beginning to foment between Phoebe and Alnshelm. 

“I think that’s absolutely rich coming from the guy who’s so fucking drawn to our conversations than to anything else. God, you act as though we’re shouting to the top of our lungs.” 

“I’ve seen a man get eaten alive because they thought talking in the open was a smart idea. And now I see you’re trying to have the same happen to you.” 

“First of all, numbskull, we’re  _ always  _ in the open. Have been since the beginning of this shit. Second, our volume was below  _ here _ ,” she said, indicating with an arm held low to her waist before she rose it up to her head, “While you brought yours to  _ here. _ ” 

“Um, guys?” Jason tried again, raising a hesitant hand, but Minh’s aggravated voice was much louder and assertive. 

“What the hell’s going on?” He asked sharply, looking at both guilty parties as he made his way to them to intervene. 

Carter shook his head and spoke up in an effort to keep the peace. “Sorry. Everyone’s just tired and got a little heated. Pretty sure all this is a big misunderstanding and-” 

“Oh, there’s  _ no _ misunderstanding.” Phoebe interjected with a snarl. “Anshelm’s being a dick, that’s a fact.” 

Alnshem turned to their leader, vexed. “Minh, you didn’t hear them talking all the way from the front? Because I did. And both you and I know what happens when people get too carried away.” 

Minh sighed and pinched his nose. “Alnshelm, we’ve been over this.” 

Anshelm looked shocked, as though he was punched in the gut. “What are you saying? Minh, you were the one who said that we shouldn’t get lost in discussion.” 

“Guys?” Jason tried once again. 

“There’s a difference between getting lost in discussion and having a chat. We’ve got what we needed Alnshem. It’s okay for us to talk as we walk.” 

“So, you’re on _ her _ side now? Since when did you become such a hypocrite!?” 

“No, seriously guys! I hear somethi-” 

“Alnshem, you’re the only one yelling now. Besides, we’ve got what we needed. Not everyone has super hearing like you.” 

“Look guys, can we just drop it?” Carter gently pleaded, raising his arms up as his eyes darted nervously around his surroundings as what was originally just slightly above a whisper volume had ballooned up into near shouting. “It’s not that big a deal.” 

Entirely ignored, Alnshem went on with renewed, furious vigor. “Now I know I’m validated in thinking I was surrounded by  _ idiots! _ It’s a damn miracle that we survived this long with people who can’t shut up for longer than a few hours for the life of them!” 

Iris flinched. Her respect for Alnshem began wane as he essentially 

The other scouts, anxious and confused, mainly looked in shock as their leader and one of the more senior scouts began to go at it. Minh and Alnshem locked in an argument, Carter trying to calm them down, unsuccessfully. Phoebe rearing up to talk before Minh took the words out of her mouth. Jason still trying to get all of their attention. 

“Guys?” 

“Look who’s talking!?” Now newly incensed, even Minh’s voice rose up, which was a rare enough occurrence as is. 

“No, please, you have to listen to me!” came the ignored plea from Jason. 

“No, really guys we’re getting too loud.” came the also ignored statement from Carter. 

But Alnshem wouldn’t let himself be ignored. “It's like you guys have the self-preservation skills of a toddler with a power outlet!” 

“Oh, so now the real Alny comes out! I always knew you an ass.” Phoebe snarled, rejoining the verbal dispute. 

“You’re the one who started this!” Alnshem said, pointing a finger in her face. The accusation was said with such vice, even Iris took offense to it despite her not having any involvement in the ordeal. 

“No, prick. That was you.” Phoebe spat right back, “Coming at us like we did something to you. No wonder Minh got voted as leader over you.” 

“You think I’m petty enough to think this is all about him being leader? You think I’m that damn  _ petty?” _

“Enough!” 

“Well, you’re obviously petty enough to attack us when we’re literally just having a chat!” 

“Guys?” 

“You guys, this is  _ insane. _ Are we really going to get into a fight over this!?” 

“Well, next time some bimbo who has no idea what she’s facing tries to accuse me of not knowing how to survive, maybe I might-” 

_ “WATCH OUT!”  _

All chatter vanished as something the size of a barn silo suddenly swept down from the sky in a gigantic blurr. With incredible speed that created a strong gust of gale force winds that blew everyone to the ground, it swooped into the group and whipped up like a jet. A flap of ombre-brown wings bathed the terrified group in its shadow before it took off back into the air with a small wiggling, and to Iris’s horror,  _ screaming  _ person clenched securely within its beak. 

The northern harrier disappeared in a flash with its prey, gone with the wind and leaving the remaining scouts on the ground, terrified out of their wits. 

Iris was trembling like a leaf from the close call, her hair still on end even though the danger had passed.She didn’t budge until Carter, who looked just as winded as she did, came to her and helped her to her feet. 

“Head Count!” Minh called out, the argument forgotten, “Who’s with me?” 

Jason, frazzled and still braced for an impact that had long passed, rose a tentative hand. “I-I am.” 

“I am too,” said Hannah, who was still panting as she took inventory of her fallen basket. “God, that was close.” 

“Both Iris and I are here,” Carter assured, with Iris still trying to catch her breath from the heart-pounding event that had just occurred. 

“And so am I,” said Alnshem, who was the quickest to recover besides Minh. His lips were pursed tautly as he looked around to see who was remaining, as well as any semblance of another assault coming in.

Several “I ams” and names were being shouted out. Iris heard Francis.. .Peter… Joseph… Charlotte… 

_ Wait…. _

Her heart sunk. 

“Where’s Phoebe?” 

An atmosphere of dread fell upon the group as everyone turned their heads whichever way to look for the one person unaccounted for. A few called her name, but the missing woman didn’t respond. 

Minh grimaced. It was obvious what, or rather  _ who, _ the bird had snatched up and bereft the group of. It had happened so quickly, no one had the proper time to gather their weapons or run. 

And now, Phoebe was gone. 

Before the loss could have a moment to sink in, Minh spoke up in a voice that wasn’t completely deprived of emotion. 

“We’ll mourn for her later. Right now we need to get back.”

There was an air of absolutely certainty when he said, “No one is going to say a word until we’ve made it.” 

Unsurprisingly, no one contested this. 


	3. Chapter 3

“It’s not your fault, Carter.” 

She lost count how many times she told him, but she would say it a hundred more times if it would alleviate even an iota of the unbearable guilt the man was feeling. 

The sky was becoming a brilliant orange as the sun began to dip slightly below the horizon, dusk just beginning its approach. 

The scouting group had returned to the colony after spending nearly half the day gathering supplies from beyond the safe point without further incidents. They were welcomed by the twenty-seven remaining survivors who had stayed behind, peeking out of their huts, cabins and tents or pausing their labor to see them come in through the wooden gate. 

The colony had been situated near a hollowed tree and an abandoned rabbit burrow, where some of the more able-bodied villagers were still in the process of carving out into a proper base for them to take shelter in, especially during the colder months of late fall and winter. Significant progress had been made in the past few years but it still wouldn’t have been able to fit everyone in just yet. A strip of lopsided bark and some wilting overgrowth had served as the shield that protected the village from most of the elements and sight, allowing them to thrive while remaining hidden from most animals so far, with the occasional fox or groundhog being driven away with an array of venom-tipped arrows. 

Inside Carter’s single room hut, Iris and Jason had been trying to console the despondent man who had blamed himself for the whole incident. 

“Iris is right, Carter,” Jason had added, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder. Jason was better at this thing than Iris was. “You did nothing wrong. Alnshem was the one who blew it out of proportion, and even then, Phoebe herself kind of played a part. But you have nothing to be sorry about.” 

“But if I had just hadn’t spoken at all, then none of this wouldn’t have happened,” Carter said sorrowfully, his red eyes looking at his feet, unable to make eye contact with the ones around him whom he felt that he had wronged. 

Iris shook his head. “First of all, if that was the case, then I’m partially at fault too,” her eyes narrowed in regret. “If I hadn’t responded or remained quiet as well, we wouldn’t have to worry about what happened.” 

“It’s not your fault either, Iris.” Jason whipped right back to her. “Hell, who’s to say it was  _ anyone’s _ fault, really. That bird was probably planning to pluck any of us up anyway. They have excellent eyesight. They probably saw us before we even started talking.” 

“But Jason, you  _ tried _ to  _ warn _ us about it, but we were so caught up that we-” 

“No, Alnshem and Minh were the ones caught up in conversation, and even then, Alnshem was the one responsible for raising his voice more than he should. Besides, what’s done is done, and you’re blaming yourself unnecessarily for something that isn’t your fault to begin with.” 

“No matter what, we’ll do better.” Iris said with finality. “We have to do better. What happened…” she moistened her lips to try to help her get the words out. “What happened probably could’ve been bound to happen from the start, no matter what we did. We don’t know. But, you really need to stop blaming yourself. Because, as hard as it is for you to believe it right now, it’s really not your fault.” 

Carter didn’t say anything, his eyes still wet with unshed tears. After a few silent moments, he looked up to both Jason and Iris and gave them a wisp of a smile. A sad one but one of genuine gratitude. “I… I appreciate you guys coming to check up one me and all but, do you mind if… if I’m alone for a bit? I just… need some time.” 

Jason and Iris looked at one another before looking back at Carter. While she couldn’t speak for Jason, she felt confident that he would agree. “Sure, of course. Just… if you feel like talking or anything, feel free to stop by my place. I’ll also come check on you later, okay?” 

Carter just gave a single nod, bringing a hand to slide down his face as though it would mitigate some of the guilt holding him down. 

“And don’t forget to eat. We have to keep our energy up. I’ll bring you tonight’s dinner once it’s done.” 

With a compassionate hug and wave, they said goodbye to Carver and walked amidst the colony square. 

Everyone was usually busy around this time of day. The hunters were preparing a newly killed cricket, a mouse and a couple of woodlice around the central bonfire in the center of the village. A few others were bringing in pails of water as others were assessing the scaffolding of the palisade, lining up leaves and twigs to reinforce it. 

And then there were those that were preparing tomorrow’s funeral service in the hut for Phoebe. 

There was an air of melancholy among all of the villagers. As small as they were, they had become incredibly close knit in the past few years. Some of them became as close as family, some even forming relationships such as Peter and Brianna, or Janice and Mildred. So whenever a single person was lost, everyone to some degree had felt it. But despite it all, there was still work to be done at the moment, and the time to gather to mourn together would have to wait. 

Either way, most of them were far too busy to pay attention to both Iris and Jason’s conversation. 

“You think he’ll be okay.” 

_ “I hope so.” _ was on the tip of her tongue, but instead, she said, “I’m sure he will be ok in due time. I think… everyone’s a bit shaken by this.” 

Jason hummed in agreement as he turned to where Alnshem’s cabin was. Ever since they had returned, he had stayed inside without coming out. Those who had tried to check up on him had been shooed away, leaving the man in solitude without anyone knowing exactly how well he was coping with the situation. Last she saw him, he had mentioned something about him being an interloper and had a rather haunted look in his face.

“Although Alny said all that stuff, I think he feels awful for what happened,” Jason said, trying to spot the man from the small openings within the cabin, but he couldn’t see high no hair of him. 

Iris shook her head. “He may be a dick in some ways, but he’s still human. I won’t be surprised if this has hit him much harder than it hit Carter.” 

“Minh too. I heard him talk to Mr. Darrell about stepping down as a scout. I don’t think he should. But I don’t think there’s anything I can say that’ll change his mind.” 

“I just think it's sad really,” Iris whispered wistfully. “I mean, we were just talking about some dumb facts and about assumptions and then it just… really spiraled out of control. And I know I shouldn’t think I’m responsible for all this, but I think I kind of am.” 

“But you’re  _ not, _ Iris,” Jason said firmly. “And never were. Look, it was a bird. Probably saw us before it heard us. And probably would’ve still came for us if we were hiding quietly. Mice get caught all the time by them.” 

“But still… Phoebe…” 

“Try not to think about it.” Jason said with a shake of his head, clamping a hand on her shoulder before her poisonous thoughts on what must’ve happened to her friend could take hold. “Let’s change the subject. The leaves are beginning to change color, meaning we need to start going to the campus to get supplies. I know the art studio tends to have the most we’re going to need. How long does it usually take? A week? Two?” 

“...A week I think. That’s about how much time I noticed it takes them depending on the circumstances.” Iris answered. To be honest, she didn’t want to change topics like this. She wanted to talk about Phoebe. About how to help Alnshem, Carter and Minh. But going to those topics wouldn’t have done her much good when they would need to sort some of the situation out for themselves, and it was now around that time when a group was needed to go onto the campus grounds to gather essentials. Going back into the world of giants was an unfortunately necessary part of their survival, at least until they had sufficiently carved the interior of the tree trunk and burrow enough to hospitably live there. And especially when it was hard enough for food to grow during the cooker months when the harvest was too meager. Despite fruit and vegetables like apples and carrots being large enough to feed everyone for a month or more, they still expired and were hard to bring back at their size. And too much food attracted the attention of animals with a keen sense of smell. 

“You think you’ll be going on the expedition this time? I think I might. Not completely sure yet, but I am curious to see how the world’s going on with everything.” Jason scratched the back of his head, a nervous habit Iris had realized after knowing him for nearly half a decade. 

“I dunno, maybe? I mean, I used to hide under the trashcan in the park near it, so I’m not really all that gungho about it.” And that was downplaying it; she wasn’t eager at all to return back to the world beyond their forest. Seeing gigantic woodland creatures was one (already terrifying) thing, but seeing their fellow man now formidable titans who were capable of doing much more to them than any fox or badger or insect was another. 

“Well, I mean… I’m just thinking. The world’s kinda been going on without us, and we don’t have a clue as to what’s going on around us.” Jason sat down on one of the rocks centered in the middle, probably resting his legs for the first time since they left out that morning. “And I know things like politics or celebrities and all that shit don’t mean anything nowadays to people like us, but maybe we could get intel on our people. Like if there are any lobbyists or activists supporting us. Maybe we can see how the group back in the cafeteria are holding up? They don’t have to worry about food or weather like we do.” 

“But they have to worry about the normal people though,” Iris pointed out with a sigh. “Trust me, it may be harder living out here, but I’m pretty sure the Cafe survivors have their own problems to deal with.” 

Like CCTVs catching their movements or the routine clean up crew possibly stumbling upon their hiding spots within the walls. But there was probably more to it than just that. 

“Maybe… you’re probably right. Still, I’ve been thinking, it might be better there than here.” 

He noticed the perplexed look on her face, and took a moment to gather his thoughts in a way to elaborate. 

“Okay, so… humans are more, um… predictable? Well, students are, and so is how the campus runs. We know that certain buildings lock after a certain time period, and that things are regulated on schedules. Also, we don’t have to worry as much about food and shelter. We might have to deal with rats or spiders, but that’s no different than what we’re doing now. Plus, we know there’s enough space for all of us. Maybe we can take the Art Studio or one of the dorm kitchens or… I dunno, anywhere that can house us.” 

“I get what you’re saying Jason, but I’d rather take my chances out here,” she said with a shrug. “It’s probably just me, but… I guess I’m just some wimp who’s too afraid of the big ones. When I shrunk down, I just hid without even thinking about trying to get anyone’s attention. And that story James told me a while back makes me think I made the right call. I mean, don’t get me wrong… getting eaten or stung is scary as shit too but at least that’s usually the end of it.” She shivered at the thought of what Phoebe had probably went through, but managed to wrench her mind away from that thought to go on. “But humans? They’ve been turning us into their playthings. Experimenting on us, making us into pets… who knows what the real sickos are doing to us if that’s not the worst of it.” 

She shivered. Those thoughts weren’t even better than the one she had about Phoebe. “All I know is that if there’s a chance that any of them… any of us getting caught, we’ll probably end up on a dissection table in one of the science labs. And people are more perceptive than animals. Don’t wanna take my chances.” 

“That’s fair. I guess that’s an aspect you have to worry about.” After a moment, Jason yawned, and then it became more apparent to Iris just how tired he looked. Today’s events had taken out a lot in him, a lot out of everyone actually, but it was obvious that he had hid it pretty well for the most part. “Say, you don’t mind if I go take a power nap, do you? Not that I don’t enjoy talking with you… it’s just… y’know.” 

“Don’t worry, you don’t have to explain yourself, I understand.” She said, really meaning it. It had been a long day for everyone involved, and all those in the scouting party needed to rest up to some extent. “Want me to wake you up in time for supper?” 

He politely waved her offer down. “Nah, if I don’t wake up in time, I’ll just have breakfast in the morning. I’m not too hungry at the moment and I’ve got some rations in my place.” He got up with a stretch and gave her a side hug. “I’ll see ya whenever I get up. Take care of yourself, alright?” 

“And you do the same,” she returned and watched as he disappeared into his own little hut. 

She let out a long sigh. With everyone preoccupied doing their tasks, and her alone, she steeled herself for what she had planned to do once she was away from company. 

In a solemn gait, she made her way to the little hut situated closest to the tree hollow, pushing down her urge to retreat. Although she had been there countless times, it felt wrong to go near it now after what had transpired. 

She pushed the leaf opening out the way, knowing no one was inside; the person who had lived there now dearly departed. 

Phoebe, like most of the other Reduced folks within the colony, didn’t have much. After all, nothing but the clothes on their backs had shrunk with them. That fact alone had ruled out that it was a virus or disease to her when they had been discussing what may have happened that day, and that it was some supernatural event from some radioactive thing going on or the work of aliens. She guessed she would never know now. 

However, despite Phoebe not having much, she still had a way of making her hut look like  _ hers.  _ Like every dwelling within the colony, there was a cot, a makeshift chair and a wooden shelf that stored items and rations. But to some extent, many of the people still felt a need to personalize their places a bit, and Phoebe was no exception. There was a collection of quartz rocks aligned against the wall to give it more decoration, a canvas of handprints and geometric shapes that had been made with clay, grass threaded rugs on the ground and garlands hung above with giant flowers, this time dandelion, that adorned the walls. 

Phoebe was always one for ambiance and it showed even though she no longer was there with them. It may not have been some neon-lit bar or anything of the sort, but it did scream Phoebe’s in its own way. 

Iris and Phoebe had been friends. Maybe not as close as she was to Carter or Jason or Mildred, but she was easily on good terms with her nonetheless. They had talked together about many things, laughed at many jokes, cried about many times, and shared many secrets. And while she had seen a fair number of villagers and other Reduced perish over time before they had truly learned enough to weather the brutality of a seemingly endless world, this still hit hard as every other death did. 

She reached to the shelf on the far side of the hut and gently clasped onto the little bracelet that the other woman had been making for her as a birthday gift. It was halfway finished, with clay and mud beads fashioned into triangular and oval shapes. Originally she hadn’t expected her to make her anything for her birthday, as celebrations were seldom now, but she had insisted. 

And now it never would be finished. 

She clenched the bracelet to her chest and sat on her cot. Now that she was truly alone, she finally allowed her emotions to catch up to her and silently wept. 


	4. Chapter 4

At the break of dawn of the next day, a large green canavan made its way 

Izzy parked the caravan in the open space between the trees, right behind a fallen bough. He stepped out while putting the small parabolic microphone together. It was more annoying to reassemble the thing each time than it was to disassemble it, but it came with the job and putting it together now came to him automatically unlike when he struggled and fiddled with trying to find which part went to which. 

As he began putting together the damn thing, three other people came out, setting up equipment and gear. 

One of his colleagues, a young blond man who probably wasn’t quite old enough to drink just yet (and still, to Izzy’s mild annoyance, managed to somehow looked a bit less baby-faced than him), cricked his back a bit, no doubt getting the opportunity to get the kinks out from being in a sitting position for so long. “I really hate the outdoor ones. Seriously, are they even sure they saw one out here? 

“They said they actually saw _ two _ of them out here. Around a month back. They’re never really  _ too _ far from civilization, so I’m pretty sure there’s more of ‘em. Besides, going outdoors will do you some good,” Izzy replied, connecting the booster disc in place. Strangely, he felt a bit hypocritical saying that to Stephan given that while he was no stranger to spending an extended period outdoors, he still preferred to stay inside and lounge around his living room to watch the television. 

“It’s not the fact that I’m outdoors that’s the problem,” Stephan said, cracking the joints in his arms as he continued to stretch, “It’s the fact that when it is outdoors, it takes forever to find the little bastards. Even with four of us.” 

Aine, a tall woman with long dyed, ombre red hair done up in a ponytail, continued to check around the back of the caravan to retrieve the radars, checking to see if each was charged enough for the day. “I hate using the radars more. It’ll pick up mice, squirrels and all kinds of animals before we find any of them. At least the PMs can differentiate them more.” 

“Is the third one still broken?” Izzy asked, making sured the clear disk was screwed in tightly. 

She grabbed the radar and flipped the switch on. The sonar signal came up without issue. “It’s working, at least for me.” 

“Then you can use that one since I can’t get it to work for me for the life of me.” said the final member of the group, Qunton, a middle-aged man with dark hair in a crew cut and a trimmed mustache and beard. “The old ones were much easier to use.” 

“Yeah, but you can hook these ones up to the parabolics. Makes things a helluva lot easier.” Stephan said, raising up the cord that connected the radar and PMs together. 

“Plus, the PMs are smaller than the last,” Aine put in, putting together her own equipment. “Remember lugging around the heavy-ass stand everywhere? Good riddance to that thing.” 

“I hear you on that one,” Izzy agreed with a snap of the cord to the radar before he put his headphones on. To test to see if everything worked, he pressed the button to the microphone. All sound came in greatly amplified, and he took his finger off to send a thumbs up his crewmates’ way. 

After a few minutes of checking their equipment and making sure they were all set, Quinton went in the back to fetch a few plastic cages. He connected them to the back of their backpacks with a clip-on hook. 

Izzy looked at his employees and his tone went from conversational to instructive, “So, I’m going to head north, Aine you got south. Stephan, East. Quinton, West. Meet back up in an hour in a half. If you got something, comm in. Alright?” 

The other three gave out their affirmative and Izzy gave the nod to them to begin. “If we have to go a second round, you can grab a snack from the compartment up front in the van. See you then.” 

And with that, Izzy went off, keeping his eyes and ears to the ground for his quarry. 

When he had decided to make his own hunting business, he originally had planned for it to be for deer, elk, moose and all sorts of critters that he himself hunted for sport and the occasional dinner. And while he still enjoyed hunting big game as a hobby, his company had now solely focused on much… smaller ones. 

It was funny in a sense how much his business interests had changed, especially since he made far more money hunting down the Reduced than he did with hunting any other animal To be honest with himself, he found hunting the shrunken people far more fun and entertaining than hunting a bunch of four-legged grass muncher that he almost always did. Sure, their tiny size made them easier to catch and corrall, but their intelligence and ingenuity made them far more interesting to deal with. 

He knew, intellectually, that the Reduced were just as completely capable in the cognitive sense now as they were when they had been human, and thus it shouldn’t really surprise him when they found ways to stay beneath human detection, but it was still neat when he came across a little makeshift path in the walls with tiny LEDs or how they reformatted their hiding spaces to look like the homes as though they were straight out of the Borrowers. 

He smiled. What a missed opportunity. Borrowers sounded better than Reduced in his opinion. 

Then again, unlike the Borrowers he had read in the books as a child, it would be harder to pull off some of the things they did given that the Reduced were common knowledge and that they were formerly humans several years ago rather than a race of human lookalikes that had been around since times immemorial. While many had adapted well enough, some usually had a harder time grasping the basics to surviving at their size. Some were unable to climb, some tended to speak too loud… hell, there was a case where one of them marched right up to his feet and rattled on about how she was the daughter of some wealthy corporate higher-up and had the audacity to demand that she be returned to her estate, lest she have him charged with attempted kidnapping. 

He had a good, hearty laugh that day before he stuffed her in a cage and sold her in the black market to be auctioned. 

In any case, finding them outside was a rather large challenge given that most usually kept close to human settlements like houses or apartments. Usually pockets of them could be found in the city underground or abandoned buildings. But when they hid in open fields or forested areas, it was damn near impossible to root them out without some sort of lead or clue of some sort of their location. And that’s if the sources were right in the first place. Who knew how many calls he had received to hunt down a few Reduced, only to find out it was mice or rats. He wasn’t an exterminator or pest control for fuck’s sake...  _ most _ days. While extermination jobs paid well enough, they paled in comparison to the ones where he’d get paid for getting them out in the first place and then make more by selling them off to various clients. 

Even after walking around for half an hour, the PM still wasn’t picking up anything out of the ordinary aside from the melodic, morning bird calls and chirping insects. After ten more minutes, he could already tell this would be one of those long searches that would probably require a great deal of patience. 

He pulled his headphones down and grabbed his walkie-talkie off the cuff of his pocket, pressing the transceiver, “Any luck on anyone else’s side?” 

Stephan’s voice came in first.  _ “Nuh-ope!”  _

_ “Negative on my end.”  _

_ “Thought I did for a moment, but it was a kid’s toy.”  _

_ “Oh, speaking of kids, happy birthday to your son, Mr. Quinton!”  _

Mr. Quinton’s voice came in more jubilant than it did that morning.  _ “Wow! Thanks. I’m surprised you remembered. But then again, I probably mentioned it several times didn’t I?”  _

_ “Pretty much.”  _

“He’s turning ten, right?” Izzy asked, vaguely remembering the older man rattling about his son last week Friday. “What are you getting him?” 

_ “No clue. Was going to get him a new phone, but literally found out yesterday that my ex-wife already got it for him. Then I was thinking getting him a new console, but he already has just about all of ‘em.”  _

_ “Does your son like animals? Maybe a pet?”  _

_ “He’s allergic to dogs. And Erin’s allergic to cats.”  _

_ “Ouch. Can’t imagine having a pet that either kid could be allergic to.”  _

“Well, if we find more than we expect, why not give him one of the Reduced if we find some today?” Izzy proposed, essentially giving him permission to take one of their finds with him if all goes well. 

_ “Don’t know if that’s possible. His mom’s one of  _ those  _ people. The ones who joins protests and saying the Reduced are still one of us?”  _

_ “I mean, you said two of her siblings had become Reduced so I’m not shocked.”  _

_ “I’m not saying she had to keep them in a cage and treat them like hamsters and all that crap. She could just… shelter them and take care of them.”  _

_ “What about your son?”  _

A protracted sigh was heard through the radio.  _ “Beats me. Never got the chance to ask him. Guess I will when he comes over next week. He’s celebrating with me this year, already booked a party at Jumpzone. He loves trampoline parks.”  _

_ “Everyone loves trampoline parks.”  _

_ “Don’t say that, my brother hates them. He has bad legs.”  _

_ “I’m just saying.”  _

Izzy was going to make a quip about how people in wheelchairs and bouncing wheels when something caught his eye near his right foot. 

At first he hadn’t noticed it as it had blended into the grass a bit too well, but then he noticed that the little object was curled into an unusual shape. 

He slowly got down on one knee, reaching down with his free hand to pinch the thing between his fingers and brought it down to his face. 

At first, he thought it was an oddly-colored thimble but upon closer inspection, he saw that it was a grass-weaved basket smaller than his fingertip. Inside it were pieces of a leaf, a smaller-than-usual cranberry and other things he needed a magnifier to see properly. 

Not that he bothered with it now that he had his first sign that  _ they  _ had  _ definitely  _ been here. 

Ignoring the conversation that was still ongoing on the walkie-talkie, he placed the PM down to his side and he got on his hands and knees, placing his head closer to the ground to see if there were anymore signs that the targets, his trained eyes looking for any suspicious movement. 

While his eyes didn’t see any of them, they found something else peculiar. On the ground, nearly imperceptible, there were a row of five splinters on one side and another set on the right, both parallel to one another and formed in tiny arrows pointing up in a two different directions, northbound and southbound. 

He smiled to himself as he picked back up the PM and got back to his feet, feeling awfully giddy. They couldn’t have made this easier for him if they _ tried.  _ They probably had been so confident that no one would find them traipsing about that they hadn’t even tried to hide their (admittedly difficult to find) signs. 

Looks like the whole thing might be finished before lunch. 

He grabbed his walkie and cut through the conversation, “Guess who just struck gold?” 

Quinton immediately dropped the conversation about his son.  _ “You found them?” _

“Not quite, but I have an idea on where they’re going.” Izzy idly twiddled the little basket between his fingertips, “And get this, they literally labeled paths for us to go.” 

_ “No way.”  _ said Aine. 

“Yes way. One pointed north and one pointed south. Speaking of… Aine, what do you see?” 

The radio was silent for a few moments before her voice came back on.  _ “I’m actually getting really close to the college campus. Not many people are out yet, but so far I’m not picking up much.”  _

“And now I have an idea why,” he said distractedly, an idea coming to mind. “Stephan, convene with Aine and search the campus grounds. Better yet, try to see if you can give the dean a call while you’re at it. Tell him that RTS service is close by and that we can see about giving the school a search from our services for a reduced cost.” 

_ “You sound pretty sure that they’re are some at the school.” _ Stephan said with a chuckle. 

“Oh, I’m  _ positive.” _ He flicked the basket away out of sight, not even noticing all its contents falling out. “Could be just a group that frequents the college to get supplies and stuff, but it’s not too uncommon that there’s more than one group that’s in contact with another.” 

_ “I knew we should’ve brought more cages,”  _ Quinton mumbled over the comms. 

“It’s alright, right now, let’s look for the one out here first… if they’re out here anyway. And if we get ahold of the dean today, we’ll see where we can put it in our schedule.” 

_ “Ha! I bet it’ll turn out they were at the school the whole time and we were outside for nothing,” _ said Stephan gamely. 

_ “I think they migrated outside so they wouldn’t be found.” _ Aine responded with a huff. 

_ “If they did, I’m pretty sure they went right back in to avoid the cold weather coming up.”  _ Quinton said,a bit of static on his end. 

Izzy chuckled. This got a bit more fun. “I wasn’t expecting all of us to be so split on this. I still say there’s some outside and on the campus.” 

_ “Watch us all be wrong and we wound up going back empty handed.”  _

_ “Don’t jynx it!”  _

A small yet devious smile crossed his face. The budding excitement of the thrill of the hunt began to start an eager ember inside him. 

He truly did enjoy his job. 

“Alright, how about this? You guys wanna make a  _ bet?” _

**Author's Note:**

> Howdy everyone!
> 
> First of all, I feel like I owe you guys an apology. 
> 
> I've been inactive for several months because things in my life seem to have gone haywire (which isn't all that shocking giving that 2020 was a terrible year for everyone) and it seems now that I'm finally back in a place to start writing again. I plan for this to be a series actually, but I probably won't be as on top of this one since I have more plans for other stories. Then again, I haven't really been on top of anything thanks to stuff just going on around me. This was a spur of the moment kind of write up that I just decided to give a shot. 
> 
> Maybe I'm too optimistic, but I feel like if an event like this were to happen, most governments around the world would try to establish some way for people who got randomly shrunk to fit into society rather than... well, this. I mean, sure, there's bound to be places where the law would just give up on you and then you'd be really screwed, but maybe not the whole world? I dunno. This is the kind of story you'll have to put your suspension of belief aside to think something like this would fly... I think. Like I said, I could be too optimistic. Your thoughts? 
> 
> P.S. Also, is it me, or does anyone else have a hard time logging back into Deviantart? I want to post this story there but I keep getting this 403 Error message every time I try to even pull the page up. It doesn't even work when I restart my computer and clean the cache out. Any tips?


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